(Reprinted from the January 2023 issue of The New York City Jazz Record)
In 2018 pianist Fred Hersch invited bassist/singer esperanza spalding to perform with him at the Village Vanguard as part of his annual birthday gig there. Hersch had the foresight to record these stunning sets, and on Jan. 9, Palmetto Records releases Alive at the Village Vanguard, eight tracks that capture the peak moments of the duo’s improvisations during that run.
The album’s big reveal: spalding, as a standards singer sans bass, is riveting. Not just for her gifted spontaneity on time-honored melodies (“But Not For Me” and “Some Other Time”) but for her clever patter. She’s awfully funny, for instance, on “Girl Talk,” when she riffs about false eyelashes on sale at RiteAid (“you can reuse them joints!”)—even as she makes clear that her humor is anything but idle (“you think we’re talking about one thing…but we’re practicing a theory of economic sustainability”). She moves in and out of speaking and vocalizing, stepping aside for Hersch’s own impromptu musical commentary on the matters at hand. But be prepared to keep up: the ideas fly thick and fast. Just listen to Egberto Gismonti’s “Loro” as she remaps the original’s simple Brazilian lines in a peripatetic scat solo. The duo closes the recording with an easeful rendition of Hersch’s “A Wish”; counter-intuitively, spalding’s relaxed delivery gives Norma Winstone’s bittersweet lyrics extra weight. Hersch and spalding officially release the album at the Vanguard Jan 10-15.
Pianist/singer Ann Hampton Callaway honors singer/songwriter Peggy Lee with Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration!, also on Palmetto and set to launch in February. She’d developed the material for the album—14 songs that Lee either wrote or popularized—for a show at 54 Below that commemorated what would have been Lee’s 100th birthday in 2020. The album contains some of Lee’s hits, like “Fever”, “The Folks Who Live On The Hill” and “Black Coffee”, none of which Lee wrote. But it also highlights her contributions to standards like “I Don’t Know Enough About You” (composer/lyricist), “I Love Being Here with You” and “Johnny Guitar” (lyricist). Like Lee, Callaway made her name as a Songbook interpreter who writes tunes that fit neatly into the canon. For this project, she penned music to one of Lee’s unfinished poems—“Claire de Lune”, a heart-tugging ballad (Callaway’s bailiwick) that only hints at the Debussy classic. Callaway will preview the new record at 54 Below on Jan. 15—just a week before the anniversary of Lee’s death in 2002.
The Royal Bopsters—singers Amy London, Jeanne O’Connor, Pete Mcguinness and Dylan Pramuk—celebrate 10 years of close jazz harmonies with the reissue of the group’s 2015 debut album The Royal Bopsters Project, now retitled The Royal Bopsters (Tenth Anniversary Edition), both on Motéma. The redux pulls 11 tracks from the original release, which featured vocal jazz pioneers Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, Bob Dorough, Mark Murphy and Sheila Jordan as guests. The new album also premiers a standout bonus track: a bright acapella arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” (by Pramak), dedicated to the group’s late collaborators—besides Hendricks, Ross, Dorough and Murphy, founding member Holli Ross, who passed in 2020. The Royal Bopsters will appear as part of the APAP conference at Swing 46 on Jan 14.
In other highlights from the January conferences, APAP will feature Nicole Henry and Allan Harris on Jan. 14; Mafalda Minnozzi Jan. 14-15; and Dara Tucker Jan. 15. And Winter JazzFest will host Sara Serpa on Jan. 13; Sarah Elizabeth Charles on Jan. 14; and Samara Joy on Jan 16.
A parting word: In my 16 years of contributing to the New York City Jazz Record (initially All About Jazz-New York), I’ve never written in the first person. Well, maybe a royal we here and there. I’m breaking with convention today to bid farewell to Andrey Henkin, my erstwhile editor, and to acknowledge his vision, generosity and humor throughout these many years. He and managing editor Laurence Donohue-Greene have always championed an inclusive, respectful publication, and jazz journalism is better for their efforts. When I joined the paper in 2006, female jazz journalists were almost unheard of. And most jazz journalists covered vocalists only reluctantly, sometimes sneeringly. (To his credit, Andrey shut that down right away.) Today, we get to hear a multitude of voices because of journalists like Andrey and Laurence. I thank you for your leadership, Andrey, and wish you well.